Euan McLean: Men v women is bad timing but an Open and shut case

EUAN says if the women’s pro game is serious about earning the profile it deserves, they need to help themselves by avoiding a head-to-head battle with one of the most popular events on the men's tour.

AN AMAZING three weeks of world class golf lies ahead with the Scottish Open, Open and Senior Open taking place on some truly iconic links courses.

My only bugbear is that it isn’t expanding into a four-week stretch in a baffling piece of planning by organisers of the Ricoh Women’s British Open.

As I write this from Royal Aberdeen, where excitement is steadily building ahead of the Scottish Open, in Southport the cream of the women’s game are preparing for their major challenge at Royal Birkdale.

It’s a clash as regrettable as it was avoidable. Surely a slot somewhere else on the LPGA and European Tour’s summer calendar could have been found to avoid putting the women in a head-to-head battle for attention with one of the most popular events on the men’s tour?

Just last month Catriona Matthew – Scotland’s top world-ranked golfer – took a swipe at the lack of British media hanging around after the men’s US Open at Pinehurst to cover the women’s event on the same course the following week.

And I can see her point. The USGA’s bold decision to stage the events back to back on the No.2 Course was inspired and offered a great opportunity to showcase the women’s game in tandem with the men’s.

Sadly, it was an opportunity missed by many media outlets – but before you brand us all sexist pigs, please consider the financial climate newspapers operate within these days.

Convincing the bean counters to open the wallet for a one-week trip to North Carolina would have required a monumental effort for many journalists. Getting them to stump up for another week would, I expect, have seen many golf writers laughed out of the editor’s office.

Given the choice between the men’s and the women’s event, there is only one winner as you must always cater to the biggest portion of your readership. Again, that’s no disrespect. I have a high regard for the female pros and have said before that any male golfer, outwith the elite amateurs, should be modelling his game on the women rather than the guys you’ll see lining up at Royal Aberdeen this week.

These top guys play a completely different game to us mere mortals – Bubba Watson booms his drives further than some people go on holiday. It would take many club golfers three shots just to catch up.

The yardages of the female pros, however, are something male club golfers truly can aspire to. I’ve been privileged to play on a couple of occasions with European Tour pros Gwladys Nocera of France and Scots Lynn Kenny and Claire Queen.

And while our driving distances were often nip and tuck, when it came to every shot after that these girls were on a different planet. Accuracy, consistency, distance control, the ability to shape shots, crisp wedge play and demonic putting – they had it all.

It’s an education to watch and I just feel sorry I will be denied that opportunity at Birkdale due to the timing.

Royal Aberdeen has attracted one of the best fields you will see at a regular European Tour event all year thanks to the addition of superstar Americans such as defending champ Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler.

The chance to watch top names on one of the finest links courses in the country will be irresistible to the vast majority of golf fans. They’ll feel no pangs of guilt when they vote with their TV remotes. But it was lunacy to give them that choice.

If the women’s pro game is serious about earning the profile it deserves, they need to help themselves by picking battles for the audience more wisely.